This document contains resources available from AARP that may be of interest to those developing Web content and services for older adults.
Note that this is a brief selection of items. You may also be interested in other studies and demographic information and a list of usability resources.
For a more comprehensive search, we suggest our AgeLine database, which containing detailed summaries of publications about older adults and aging, including books, journal and magazine articles, research reports, and videos.
- Designing Web Sites for Older Adults: Expert Review of 50 Web Sites (2004)
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This research applies heuristics through a new model of older
adult use of the Web. The model is applied to 50 web sites that
are likely to be used by an older adult in the normal course of
their day and reveals ways that sites could do better to
increase their usability for everyone.
- Designing Web Sites for Older Adults: A Review of Recent Literature (2004)
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This annotated literature review is geared towards those
designing web sites for older adults. It concentrates on
research from the disciplines of interaction and navigation,
information architecture, presentation or visual design, and
information design.
- Unsolicited Commercial Email (Spam) and Older Persons Online (2003)
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How age 50+ frequent Internet users use the medium, their
concerns about unsolicited commercial e-mail or SPAM, and
actions they feel policymakers and consumers need to take to
deter it are detailed by Sharon Hermanson in this AARP Public
Policy Institute Data Digest of a national survey.
- Wired Generations (2003)
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A report that describes how adult children are helping their
parents and older relatives with computers and technology and
making a positive difference in their lives.
- The Deregulation of Internet Access Through DSL: An AARP Survey of Texans (2003)
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Key findings from a random telephone survey of age 18+ Texans
in January 2003 about their experiences with Internet access
service and their opinions regarding the proposed deregulation
of the state's high-speed digital Internet service.
- The End of Telecommunications? An Epilogue to Tangled Web: The Internet and Broadband Open Access Policy (2002)
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The FCC's current broadband policy direction places
competition for Internet access services in jeopardy, and could
lead to a stifling of innovation and harm to competition for
Internet services and e-commerce activities.
- Tangled Web: The Internet and Broadband Open Access Policy (2001)
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As Internet technology evolves, the basic policy question will
remain intact -- should customers have the ability to choose
how they will purchase Internet services, or will the providers
of the physical telecommunications pathway to the Internet
dictate to the public how they will consume Internet services?
- AARP Online Investor Study (2001)
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This report presents results for the issues covered by the
survey - relationships between specific online behaviors such
as the proportion of portfolio in online investments, the
frequency of online trades, changes in online trading
frequency, satisfaction with online trading, research conducted
before completing online trades, the use of an off-line broker,
and concern regarding trade monitoring.
- AARP National Survey on Consumer Preparedness and E-Commerce: A Survey of Computer Users Age 45 and Older (2000)
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As individuals increasingly manage their affairs through the
use of information technology, public and private sector
decision makers must grapple with the consequences of such
activity--the benefits, the risks, the costs, the roles. AARP
commissioned a national survey of computer users age 45 and
older concerning their views on key issues surfacing in the
electronic-commerce debate and their potential readiness as
consumers to deal with the changing commercial environment.
- AARP Members' Concerns About Information Privacy (1999)
- Consumers today face an increasing array of challenges to their personal privacy, particularly the privacy of their personal information. Advances in computer technology and in data collection techniques have allowed public and private organizations to collect vast quantities of information on consumers, including who they are, where they live, how much they earn, and how they spend their money. In light of this trend, AARP conducted a national survey to measure its members' awareness of privacy issues and to ascertain their attitudes toward current practices of selling and sharing customer information.